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Thread: Bigger bait=Bigger Fish?

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    Default Bigger bait=Bigger Fish?


    I mostly use 2" curl tail grubs with a 1/16th oz heads here in Northern Indiana and was wondering if any of you use larger baits lets say 3" tubes or curl tail grubs with a 1/8th oz head and have caught bigger Crappie???

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    I use 1/16 oz jig heads, and 1.5" yum curl tails and have caught as many big fish as small fish. I really think the time of year has a lot to do with it.
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    I caught some studs on some BIG BAITS just the other day. HUGH BAITS. Bailey Magnet Baits. We gave some away at the Mississippi Crappie Camporee. I don't use them all the time as I like to inject my tube jigs, but when they won't hit anything...I GO UP IN THE SIZE OF THE BAIT. Those big fish I had hit them the other day had 3-4 inch Shad in their gullet.

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    Lightbulb Len ...

    Quote Originally Posted by Len
    I mostly use 2" curl tail grubs with a 1/16th oz heads here in Northern Indiana and was wondering if any of you use larger baits lets say 3" tubes or curl tail grubs with a 1/8th oz head and have caught bigger Crappie???
    While I have seen big Crappie caught (or personally caught) on 4" plastic craws, 1oz Spinnerbaits, and some fairly good sized crankbaits ... I have taken most of the Crappie I've caught, on baits (or minnows) that were less than 2.5" long.
    The question reminds me of a Spring trip, many years ago, to Watts Bar Lake in East Tenn. My fishing partner's friend, a local, had been catching good sized Crappie ... trolling 3" twin tail grubs. We arrived less than a week after his last successful trip, while using these baits. We ended up catching our fish (just as many, and just as big) on a 1/16oz marabou Roadrunner. He had been catching his fish (trolling the big baits) out on the main lake and in the mouths of the creeks ... we caught ours back in the creeks, and right against the bank. TIMING !! That's part of the key. The fish had gone from being scattered & on the move (pre-spawn mode), to a "near spawn" mode, in a weeks time. The big baits may have been productive out in the open water, where they could be seen more easily ... but, failed to produce once the fish had moved shallow. (the fellow using the big grubs did not catch fish during the time frame that my partner and I were slaying 'em )

    If a Crappie is hungry, or all the conditions are right for a feeding frenzy, or the time is right for larger prey, or water conditions dictate a larger bait, or wind conditions dictate a heavier/larger bait ... then, big baits will produce ... IF presented to the fish in the correct manner, using the correct method to do so. It's been my experience, that those times are few and far between. For my ways of fishing, and the lakes I fish, small and slow seems to produce as many big Crappie, as it does numbers of Crappie.
    Crappie are just as much a "opportunistic" predator fish, as are many other species ... and will willingly take on a 3-4" long meal, as they will a 1-2" one. It's all a matter of getting the bait in front of them, at the right time/place/depth/speed and under the right circumstances. When they are feeding ... they'll take whatever they can catch and swallow. When they're not as aggressive, they seem to prefer a smaller bait. Seems that way to me, anyway.

    ... cp

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    I think it depends on the area fishing and time of year. Certian lakes have larger baitfish and in the winter fish tend to hit smaller easier to catch prey.

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    I don't think you should worry about using larger baits and not catching crappie after seeing 3 & 4 inche shad spit up in your livewell by crappie you have caught.
    I've used bigger baits hoping to catch larger fish and have been suprised at just how I would catch real small crappie with the larger baits.
    I think the bait one uses the most is what you will catch the most fish on.
    I tend to think if I'm after the larger crappie I probably won't catch as many crappie and if I'm catching and releasing I'm pretty happy with the thump from a small fish.
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    Quote Originally Posted by LBM
    I don't think you should worry about using larger baits and not catching crappie after seeing 3 & 4 inche shad spit up in your livewell by crappie you have caught.
    I've used bigger baits hoping to catch larger fish and have been suprised at just how I would catch real small crappie with the larger baits.
    I think the bait one uses the most is what you will catch the most fish on.
    I tend to think if I'm after the larger crappie I probably won't catch as many crappie and if I'm catching and releasing I'm pretty happy with the thump from a small fish.

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    Simple really.Early and late in the year when the water's cold use small baits.When the water warms and they are aggresive,bigger baits work.

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    Quote Originally Posted by crappiekeith
    Simple really.Early and late in the year when the water's cold use small baits.When the water warms and they are aggresive,bigger baits work.
    Not always Keith. The small baits work in spring and early summer here but in the fall after the hatch has grown bigger, these fish will hit bigger baits all the way til ice up. Just last weekend i tried some tiny baits a friend sent me but didn't get anything on them yet. The bigger plastics put big crappies in the boat.
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    That's what I'm saying Chauncy.
    Early to me is 3 days after the ice goes out and for 4 weeks there after.
    Late to me is when I'm standing on ice.
    Right now with no leaves on the trees and water temp around 50 they are hitting 2" stuff.
    Yet if anyone recalls late August and into Sept. I was using my 64th oz. jig drilling slabs.

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